No More Hay Fever Blues

Have you ever had hay fever? I mean really bad hay fever? Eyes stinging, watering, and itching while sneezing uncontrollably? I have. And I was miserable.

I remember it being the worst when I was at the University of Missouri in 1973. My hay fever was so intense that it would evolve into a serious case of bronchitis. When I did see doctors they would prescribe pills that would only dull the hay fever symptoms. And then I didn’t feel great. I felt numb and barely functioning.

I never went to a doctor that could tell me why I had hay fever and how I could make it stop. It was always take this pill. It will help you. So I went on with my life thinking that hay fever was going to be my evil partner on this planet journey.

It was sometime in 1983 that I came across some books by George Osawa and Michio Kushi. I have always been interested in health books, so I became very intrigued by the eastern approach to nutrition. I came across a paragraph in one of Mr. Kushi’s books that changed my life forever. I wish I still had the book so I could quote it for you verbatim.

Anyway, the words I read blew my mind. It said something like this: hay fever is not caused by pollen floating through the air. If pollen caused hay fever, then everyone would have hay fever. If you have hay fever, you have a digestion problem. If you want to cure your hay fever then quit eating foods that are hard for you to digest.

I am thinking to myself, “What!? No doctor ever mentioned digestion to me! Could this be true?” The book went on to say that pollen is a protein and is absorbed into the body as we breathe. Then our body tries to digest the extra protein.

In my case, if I ate hard-to-digest red meat or dairy during hay fever season, then my body could not handle the overload. But the body is smart, it goes into overdrive to get rid of the excess and uses the eyes, nose, and skin to help in the process. So, somebody like me ends up with a running nose, watery and itchy eyes. Some people also break out in skin rashes.

By this time in my reading I am overcome with joy and excitement. It’s like I found a secret treasure. I was pumped! I kept reading the paragraph over and over and saying to myself “Could this be right, could changing what I eat work for me?”

Well it was time to find out. I changed my diet. I started looking at the foods that were hard to digest and eliminated them from my diet during hay fever season. And, guess what, my hay fever went away. Gone. It has never come back. This was a major event in my life because I suffered miserably for years.

I could not get over the fact that the answer to my hay fever was in the foods that I was eating. I could not get over the fact that no doctor made any mention of my diet. It was always, “Take this pill”.

I need to remind you that this is what happened to me. I know that there are people out there with stomachs like steel that can eat anything they want without any hay fever problems. I am only sharing what happened to me.

Overtime I began to realize that the my biggest food problems were red meat and dairy. I had already stopped drinking milk, now it was the cheese and red meat that I had to stop eating to get healthy. I remember that when I was young and drank milk and ate cheese everyday that I also suffered from severe gastric distress. I would double over, fall on the floor and lay on my stomach for hours. It got to be a routine my family just got used to. “Don’t step on your brother, he’s laying on the floor moaning again!”

Another thing that I learned from Michio Kushi and George Osawa was the importance of chewing your food thoroughly. Seems like one of the those wisdom statements mom always used to make. “Slow down and chew your food.” But, not me, I was always in a hurry. Since I was miserable with hayfever, it was time for me to try anything to make it go away. So I did. I slowed downed, started eating the right foods and remembered to chew.

After curing my hay fever I began to wonder what else doctor’s were not telling me. I started to think more about what did they do in the old days....before all the pills? I started to question everything I was told that was true. But that’s another story.